The present invention relates to an assembly tool for applying multi-terminal electrical connectors to multi-conductor flat electrical cable and in particular to an assembly tool which will apply connectors having a plurality of closely spaced insulation piercing terminals onto flat cable having a like plurality of closely spaced insulated conductors.
Mass termination, insulation displacement connectors have come into increasing commercial prominence because of the significant savings in time and labor they offer compared to stripping and individually terminating each conductor using a crimp terminal. These connectors have an insulative housing body holding a number of regularly spaced terminal elements having slotted plates terminating in sharpened free ends extending beyond a surface of the body. The connectors also include covers having recesses in facing surface for receiving the free ends of the plates. After the insulated conductors are aligned with their corresponding slotted plates, relative closing of the housing body and cover results in displacement of the insulation with the conductor cores contacting the metallic plates.
Heretofore, assembly tools for connectors have been available commercially. However, these previous tools for applying connectors have had certain drawbacks. They were open to error in placement of the cable and they required cable with small tolerances on the center to center distance of the conductors. The small tolerances required by conventional assembly tools has made it impossible to use the insulation displacement connector style connectors on some types of cables.
A termination press marketed by Amphenol Products, Lisle, Illinois, has a first handle which is operated part way causing a plate to engage the first five conductors of the flat cable. With the end of the flat cable thus held in the press, the operator pulls the remaining conductors away from the held end. When the remaining conductors are properly aligned, the handle is operated to complete its travel causing the remaining plate sections to hold the remaining conductors of the flat cable in preparation for termination of the flat cable. This is a cumbersome two-step process that requires time-consuming manual manipulation by the operator.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,393,580 to Hall, Jr. directed to a tool for use with flat cables, a bar is held by a spring member which presses the cable against a fluted surface to hold the cable in preparation for termination. This tool requires that the operator must determine what type of cable is to be used and the number of conductors in the cable for successful operation.